Microsoft has apologised to a British man it had accused of sending out huge amounts of junk email, or 'spam'.
The software giant issued an "unreserved apology" to Simon Grainger from Merseyside, whom it had served with a writ, accusing him of stealing e-mail addresses of its customers to send them spam. Mr Grainger was one of 15 people targeted by the company in a high-profile attack against the rising tide of junk email. But Microsoft has now, two months later, admitted it was a case of mistaken identity.
Unwelcome post
In a statement to the BBC in June, Microsoft said it had taken legal action "against a background of misuse of a domain name registered in Mr Grainger's name". But Mr Grainger said the company had made no attempt to contact him before serving him with the writ by post. Microsoft did, however, leave a window of opportunity open. It said in a statement: "In the event that there is persuasive evidence supporting Mr Grainger's assertions, we would be very happy to consider it and team up with Mr Grainger to discover the true identity of the perpetrators." Mr Grainger said he thought he had been targeted because a domain name he bought last year may have been used in spam attacks by a previous owner.
Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3136233.stm